Tongue Tied
by Left Eye Better
Summary: Barricade has decided to make the best of a bad situation, starting with warping an Autobot to be his partner while the Autobots begin what is likely to be a long search for one of their own.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One- Ever Growing and Infinite.

Writer: Left_eye_better

Rating: PG

Chapter Summary: Bluestreak is found and stolen by Barricade, and the Autobots begin what is likely to be a lengthy search.

Warning: Unbeta'd

Chapter Word Count: 2617

**Disclaimer**: _Transformers_ © Hasbro/Takara

Author Note: I really do like this idea. I don't have much of a drive to work on it and am hoping by posting the first of a few chapters I have created that the reviews and hits will bolster my want to continue this. Please check tops of each chapter for rating, I'll update the rating on the story to keep it current with the highest rated chapter.

Chapter One- Ever Growing and Infinite.

The earth exploded. Dirt, stone, and smoldering shrubbery rained for under a minute then all that could be heard was the hum of a well tuned engine, and the soft pinging of cooling metal. Soon added to these two soft sounds was a third, the crunch of newly raised ground under tires.

He'd tracked the signal, as weak as it was and he had to move his prize before its friends arrived. The term 'friends' rolled over his processor like molasses, disgustingly sweet, and equally as slow. The sound of shifting plates signaled his transformation from innocent enough looking patrol car to menacing robot with red optics and a glint of claws. He lowered himself into the crater, and widened the radius of the device he used to hide his signal to also encompass the diminutive signal projected by the Autobot protoform.

Days ago when he had first snatched the signal from the heavens the interceptor had paired it with a designation. That designation belonged to that of a young gunner, known for his capability to shoot astonishingly accurate from a long distance. An Earthian term for the skill was "designated marksman" or more commonly "sniper." Many a seeker hit Cybertronian ground due to this gunner shooting their wings off them midflight. At that time he had been amused by picturing an organic bird falling from the sky with its wings ablaze.

He dragged the red, gray, and black form from the crater, and trudged for the road. He had purchased the service of a tow truck and a driver from a shady little corner of a nearby city. It had been an easy matter, with the internet and all. The way the organics of this planet threw around their currency on it only helped matters. The simple taking of a number, and he had been able to order the truck to meet him at the location needed. It was so clean. He almost had to wonder if the humans had mastered this type of crime yet.

The protoform jostled as it was dragged over uneven ground, bit of the rocky planetary entry shell falling from it. As much as the Decepticon hated, no- loathed was the better term, to admit it; he needed that form. He needed a partner. He needed someone that he'd be able to ally with, to plot with, to warp, and to twist. He chuckled darkly at the last one and tightened his claws around the Autobot's plate that was currently in his grip, liking the feeling of the dagger-like tips digging into the metal. Such soft plates this one has. It was in need of repairs. He'd worry about that when they had gotten to a place far enough away that he didn't have to worry about any disturbances of the potentially cannon wielding kind.

They reached the road. He knelt and rolled the Autobot onto its stomach so that the data ports on the back of the mech's neck were easily accessible. He drew a line from his arm and connected it. The protoform shuddered as the alt-mode data was forcibly uploaded but the mech's subroutines soon decided that the alt-mode was acceptable. The form shuddered briefly. Plates warped and shifted, energon spilt across the ground, and hues shifted to that of more standard automobile colors. A malicious grin worked its way through Barricade's sharp teeth.

The Autobot had taken the form of a Shelby GT Mustang with a super charger on its black hood, similar in color to roof and trunk, while red streaks ran down the elegant sides, and the rest of the body was a deep rich gun metal gray. The windows had tinting that was borderline illegal in many of the political regions of the country they were currently residing in, but rarely had he ever found that it was enforced. The Autobot had the privilege to have a similar alt-mode to that of his.

Whether he had done it out of pride of his own design, or for the tactical advantage that that could be provided to him if a battle was to occur between him and this one's friends he was unsure of, but having an expendable factor that could confuse the enemy for even a mere click could serve him well. Even if they managed to recover their comrade it still would cause confusion in later battles.

His scanners picked up the tow truck coming down the road. His own form shifted back to that of the police cruiser. Headlights crested over the hill, and then pulled off to the side of the road next to the waiting police car. The window of the vehicle rolled down, and the driver leaned across the seats. A cigar stub was pushed to the far corner of his mouth in an effort to make him easier to understand. "Hey, Officer! You the one that called about needing a tow?"

Barricade's holoform flickered on as his window sunk into the door. "Actually, a motorist had called the precinct saying their car was acting up, and they had hit a guardrail. Turns out they were intoxicated and another cruiser took them in already. We need to have their vehicle towed off the side of the road, and to the impound lot so it can be recovered by a sober relative." The current feeling he had could be described as victorious. The weaving of lies was a specialty of his. This was the first taste of the particular lie's sweet wine, and he had a whole bottle being chilled for him.

The human nodded and got out of his truck, shutting the door rather hard. He carried his long metal flashlight, and made his way to the only other vehicle around. The man whistled as his light went up and down the body of the car, admiring the form and the custom paint job. The driver hadn't noticed the lack of license plates, most likely due to the darkness that night had provided. It was a short process, since the Autobot had been in a position that the tow truck could easily maneuver to hook up.

In watching the human load his prize onto the flat bed tow unit he realized he had probably over ordered the towing service but at least this way the mech had no way of escape if he happened to online while strapped to the flat bed of transport unit. The driver came over to Decepticon after loading was complete. He never understood the human compulsion to mindless chatter at each other, but of course Frenzy, before he joined the well of all sparks, had the same compulsion.

This one wished to discuss the weather, and sporting event called 'hockey' which the internet had provided him several examples each involved these organics attaching blades to footwear, wielding sticks, and dressed in armor on a field of ice, fighting over a small black disk. He had long ago stopped being surprised by the seemingly endless amount of human stupidity, and had started to believe it, similar to the universe, was ever growing and infinite.

The human had finally gotten back into the tow truck and put it in gear. He motioned for Barricade to lead. The Decepticon would have preferred to follow behind, but it seemed to be another custom of the organics; they preferred their law enforcement where they could see them. His tires bit into the gravel shoulder, and he took the lead.

Looking back at the towing rig, he allowed his holoform to mimic the pleased expression of what it had been designed after. "Recharge well, Designation Bluestreak. When you online you'll find out how cruel of a world you've landed on."

-Impact site- 45 minutes later

Hound knelt, placing a four-fingered hand down on dragline leading out of the crater. "It don't make any sense, Optimus." He paused looking up to his magnanimous leader. "There's no sign of a struggle. It looks more like a body was dragged away, but…" The forest green mech rose to his full height and followed the line of footprints leaving ones of his one on the newly raised earth. "I'll sniff him out." He stated confidently pausing in his pursuit a moment.

Prime patted the tracker on the shoulder. "I'm sure you will. Can you give us any leads?" His hand squeezed lightly on Hound's shoulder. It was a quiet sign that any information was welcomed even if it was bad.

"Well, the first mech drove up." The olive green mech pointed to the tracks that led to the crater. "Then transformed, with a push up type," He made the motion with his arms before actually pointing to he spot. "You can tell by the wide marks on either side of the stopping point, judging by the size and depth of the print, and medium sized mech, around Bumblebee's build. They went into the impact site and dragged what I would venture to say was Blue out of there then-"

Moving, and thus causing Prime's hand to fall from his shoulder, Hound followed the tracks once more until he was faced with the shoulder of the road. Nest had already taken the measures of closing the stretch of road for several miles in an effort to keep the Autobots secret from the masses.

The green mech paused and knelt again. His fingers went to the ground, and ran across it. "Energon." He lifted his hand to show the slight blue shimmer of the lifeblood of their race. "They had stopped dragging him, and another vehicle showed up but… There's been too much activity that tracks are muddled."

Optimus nodded, and looked down at the tracks. They no longer had the numbers that would have made this a simple matter of radioing base and having them search for a signal. Blaster, the mech that had the communication knowledge to easily track their missing companion was MIA, and the next soldier capable was currently laying in Ratchet's medbay, sparkless, and slowly being put back in one piece for at least a proper send off.

Bumblebee pulled up, allowing Sam to get his feet on the pavement before, transforming to stand next to the two other bots. "Any clue what happened to him?" The yellow bot spoke freely no longer bond to what lyrical verses could portray.

The teenager looked up at the Autobots. Dressed in a zip up sweatshirt, jeans, he placed his hands in his pockets to protect them from the cold of the season. It wasn't terribly cold but the season had just turned to winter and in the higher altitudes it was felt. The boy's hand wrapped around his cell phone. He knew Lennox was waiting for an answer. Well, as much as an someone with that much riding on him can wait up, seeing that it's the middle of the night.

The leader cycled air through his system and let it out. "We are unsure of his location at this time but we have Hound working on it. It appears he was taken from the scene by another Cybertronian, possibly two." Optimus had made a statement, and the effect was almost instant on his troops. Hound transformed and generated his holoform. He pulled around to face the direction he would start his search in. While Bumblebee just looked to his leader with a curious expression, that was cause by something not adding up correctly.

"Sir?" The yellow scout shift as he asked for attention. He reran the simple question through his processor to make sure it was something worthy to ask the Prime. He had never been yelled at for asking a question, but that wasn't for the fact he hadn't asked dumb questions before. It was because of Prime's enormous amount of patience.

"Yes, Bumblebee, you have a question?" He turned his attention from Hound, who sat waiting for a command, to start his search to the young scout. The scout started his question only to get interrupted by Sam.

"How do you just haul around a giant robot alien without people noticing?" A nervous finger glided over the edge of his Motorola cell phone. "I mean," He looked up to Bumblebee. "I hate to remind you of this, but how did the government get you to Sector 7 without people freaking out?"

Optimus looked to Bumblebee; the human had a point. If the abductor didn't have a proper plan then his plan would end once they arrived at a city. The scout shifted again. He had rarely accessed those files, knowing that the humans were only trying to defend themselves through a good offense. Pausing he thought about how humans and Ironhide were alike. "They used a flatbed truck and a tarp."

"That sounds like a lead to me. Good job Sam." The tracker revved his engine, and accessed the internet to find twenty-four hours tow companies that have listing for flatbed trucks.

Bee had quickly noticed the problem with that plan. "But that would mean that humans had assisted and they would have contacted law enforcement." He looked down to his human companion to make sure that this was an accurate assessment of human nature.

Sam paused before answering, and sheepishly looked down. "Some people aren't that…" Heavy footsteps from the impact site saved the teen from having to state an obvious fact humanity. Ratchet joined the group tapping his arm unit and muttering quiet curses in Cybertronian under his breath.

"I've finished scanning the impact site. Trace amount of energon, and other fluids are scattered around but it also appears I need to recalibrate my field scanner." The medic stood next to Prime, and looked up from his scanner. "It's in no amount that would prove fatal. Blue probably is in need of getting some lines patched from a rough landing. He never was good at making planet fall."

Hound was still silent in his search. The only one he found in the area hadn't responded to his telephone call. He decided that would probably be the best place to check and the sooner he could get on the scent the better. "Not all of us can be gifted Ratchet." The army green Jeep chuckled. "I found a shop that has one and it's not answering."

Prime nodded. "Good. Set out and if you find anything report back, and we'll send back up." He turned to the Medical Officer. "Is there anything else you have before Hound rolls out?" The medic shook his head. "Bumblebee?" His focus shifted to he scout.

"You mentioned possibly two Sir?" Bumblebee had let the question slide to the back burner when Sam had interrupted but now it was back in the front. "Last we knew, Barricade and a few drones were the only two on the north American continent." He looked down to the still waiting Hound with an apologetic look. He really didn't mean to hold him up, particularly when Bluestreak maybe in trouble.

The wiser mech gave a nod to Bumblebee's question. "We always have to keep the possibility open that more of them have made planet fall as well. We have the aid of our human allies and they are tracking all incoming stellar objects, but we have to be alert." He looked back at the tracker. "I stress to you, if you do get a lead, radio us for back up."

"Will do, Prime." If Hound were a member of the United States army the snap of a salute would have been heard the sound of his tires gaining purchase on the gravel of the shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- An Uncomfortable Place

Writer: Left_eye_better

Rating: PG

Warning: Unbeta'd

Chapter Word Count: 1754

**Disclaimer**: _Transformers_ © Hasbro/Takara

In the quiet corner of a just-out-of-town tow lot one rather unscrupulous, not so medically inclined, Decepticon was performing a immensely delicate procedure with nimble claws. Computer chips, and disks were tossed carelessly into a pile.

His captive had no need for radioing long distances, or his Autobot code encryptor, or for that matter any means of communicating with the Autobots. His captive only needed his keeper's word, and his keeper's proof. Barricade continued to rid his prize of these jewels. Internet was not needed. It was only access to information that may corrupt his pet.

It had been a few hours, and Barricade knew his time to disable his catch was running short. The mech's self-repair system's had booted up after a set amount of time not moving. His lines patched themselves nicely. He removed components at a faster rate.

In the end, he'd taken away many things that most Cybertronians had come to take for granted but he knew his captive would learn to depend on him. It would only take a matter of time. The interceptor put the armor back in place, and let his scalpel edged fingers drift along the young mech's plane. This was going to be easy. He'd already generated the demise of the Autobot, in a series of several video clips. He'd even added in dates and time relays. Some clips had even a little shaky camera effect that was popular among the organic of this world as of late.

Barricade could almost picture the look on the gunner's face. Horror, disbelief, shock, pain, sadness, hopelessness all in one look; he needed to keep his a blank file open and ready to be filled with the recording of it.

But that was a month and two days ago and the video file was filled.

- Side of an unknown highway in Oregon State - January 19th

Bluestreak waited quietly. He had no ability to pick up human radio signals, and Barricade had yelled at him and threatened to let the humans have him if he attempted to contact him one more time. He rocked back and forth on his tires making small ruts in the dirt. His processor had generated a list of components of his that were missing. He felt as though he was trapped in a small box do to his lack of senses. Barricade had yet to let him down, and had promised to bring back fuel.

Cars flew past the seemingly abandoned Mustang on the side of the road. The young gunner shuddered. Humans were in every one of those. Humans that had killed everyone he knew on the planet. Humans, that Barricade had rescued him from before they were able to take anything else away from him. Humans, who if they found him would freeze him then take him, and experiment on him till he died, like what Barricade said happened to Bumblebee.

The footage of Bumblebee's capture popped up in the lower left-hand area of his vision. He attempted to close the file and rummaged through files looking for something to occupy his time. Bringing up an empty text square he began formulating new questions to ask Barricade when he returned. The first one that came to mind was about the small green sign next to him. There was another one a bit further down the road and one after that. They had human numbers on it. It was possible that they were a measure counter of sorts but every road didn't have them, only the big ones, and some of them had the same number.

A car drove by. Its stereo system pulled Bluestreak from his thoughts by rattling his windows. He resisted the urge to roll into the nearby ditch for cover. A semi-truck red in color blasted by. The draft caused his frame to rock. Silently he prayed that Barricade would return. Almost as if Primus had personally answered his prayer the screech of sirens filled his audios. Only to pass him in pursuit of a small low riding white truck that had clearly been going at a faster rate then the other vehicles.

Bluestreak watched the two pull off to the side of the road. So this is what the Decepticon was modeled after. It was a relatively short exchange; the human copied down information from the other one and exchanged papers. The Officer returned to his car and continued on.

He suddenly had the impression that Barricade either and a very proper alt-mode, or one that was so total off that he chose it for what his sick comedic sense considered funny. Of course this was the same Con that found shooting out tires on cars and watching the driver lose control over it funny. It really wouldn't surprise him if it were more based on the funny side, and not on how brisk the drivers of those vehicles tend to be.

The answer of course was neither of those. The young gunner never was best at deducing answers but in this case it wasn't entirely his fault. The knowledge that police were considered to be figures of authority had been withheld from him. He never had a chance to get the answer right. Barricade had chosen it for the power it granted him.

The process of powering down started before the young mech had even realized it. A recharge was a good way to pass the time. The yellow sun that provided light to this planet warmed his external plating. He sunk a little on his suspension similar to a cat becoming a pile of goo on a warm sunlit carpet. Humans never seemed to bother cars on the side of the road so he was safe.

Until Barricade tapped his rear bumper with the ram guard causing the autobot to roll forward a couple inches and be pulled into sudden awareness. The Shebly's engine flared to life, and his tires squealed and he pulled up in a spurt of fear. The police car chuckled darkly. "Lucky I wasn't a tow truck. The humans would have you." His deep voice cooed.

Bluestreak had calmed down and his engine had settled the a quiet purr. The older of the two pulled forward. "I have fuel. Let's get off the road." He merged into traffic and was followed by his puppet.

- Mount Saint Hilary Base, Secondary Nest Base Camp- January 19th

Hound dragged himself in. Sticks had been lodged in odd places, some of them unable to be mentioned, there were scraps in his paint covering that had started to lead to a bad case of rust and mud coated him. He could have been cast in a remake of the Creature from the Black Lagoon and received compliments of his costume. Tired didn't begin to describe how he felt. Miserable was getting close though.

His fellow bots turned to look at him as he trudged his way to Ratchet's medbay. He hadn't wanted to come back until he had found Blue but it didn't work out that way. The tracker's head hung as he walked feeling like he had let down everyone.

He had nothing but dead ends to show in his search. Stolen gasoline had led to humans. Stolen car parts led to humans. If the Cons had him how we they staying off the radar? The first lead, the flat bed truck owner was out picking up a vehicle with law enforcement at the time. There were police reports as proof. He even had gone to the tow lot where the car had been dropped. The owner had come to the get the car early that morning. It was just a car, not Blue.

The door to the medbay slid open as the army green mech came up to it. Ratchet was in his adjoining room/office and came out when the door chime sounded. Hound gave a small wave with a small branch lodged in his wrist. "Hey ya Ratchet."

Ratchet frowned. "If this was a normal occurrence from you I'd throw something at you. Did you find Bluestreak?" The medic came further into the main medbay area.

The tracker shook his head. "It's as if he fell off the planet not onto it." Hound gingerly eased himself onto one of the medical tables for inspection. Upon doing so he was greeted by a crack from a stick lodged in an uncomfortable place. He let an embarrassed laugh escape him.

The neon green medic raised a mechanized brow at Hound and disappeared to the corner of the bay. He returned with a small yet glowing cube and offered it to his soon to be patient.

Hound looked at it for a moment. "You can be serious. Where'd you get that?" A smile was on his face he hadn't seen a full energon cube in so long. By the time he left Cybertron he doubted the planet had enough left in it to make one.

The light from the cube fell onto the doctor's hands. "This planet has a surplus of potential fuel sources. It didn't take long to utilize them. Though I do believe most the first batch made was rather squandered." Ratchet placed the cube in Hound's more functional hand, and grabbed the other for inspection.

"Who got overcharged?" The darker colored mech questioned trying to ignore the prodding of his wrist. He lifted the cube to his mouth and took a drink. The energon rolled slowly into his tank. It was much smoother than the fossil fuels this planet seemed so dedicated to.

With a quick tug Ratchet removed the offending stick from the tracker's wrist. "The more appropriate question would be 'who didn't?'" He turned the joint and quickly sealed the punctures the organic object had made. "Sit here, finish that, then to the wash racks. I don't wish to play the game of distinguish the dirt from the damage."

Hound's miserable feeling was waning. There was something about having something decent sloshing around in a mech's tanks that seemed to have that effect. Though, he looked down at the cube, he couldn't help but feel bad that Blue wasn't here having a cube with him.

A hand came down lightly on his shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll find him. Just keep in mind we don't need to be missing two mechs." Hound looked up and met Ratchet's gaze. "I'll inform Prime that you're on base."


End file.
